Recent research in autoshaping has provided evidence that certain skeletal response systems may be acquired and maintained in apparent contradiction to the law of effect. This interpretation, if reliable, would contribute significantly towards a reformation of traditional approaches to conditioning. The present studies seek to evaluate this interpretation by clarifying the role of instrumental relations in autoshaping. In pursuing this issue the proposed work will provide an initial empirical foundation for understanding the following questions: 1. What is the role of temporal factors in the maintenance of resonding under the omission (negative automaintenance) procedure (Experiment I)? 2. To what extent do the relations between responses and reinforcers contribute to the acquisition and maintenance of an autoshaped response (Experiment IIa plus IIb)? 3. How do superimposed autoshaping contingencies interact with ongoing instrumental behavior within the positive conditioned suppression paradigm? The proposed research will be performed with rats, an organism which has received relatively little attention in the rapidly expanding literature on autoshaping, but which has been the subject of three years of previous work by the author as a postdoctoral research associate at Columbia University. The proposed work represents a continuation and extension of that research program as the author assumes a faculty position at the College of the Holy Cross.